I drove up to my alma mater yesterday in the pouring rain to participate in the first ever 85 Broads-sponsored professional conference. Led by Kellie, Ashley, Sarah, Meredith, Amy, Danielle and the entire Wheaton 85 Broads Club, they put on a fantastic event attended by over 130 female and male students with a dozen fabulous young alums as panelists.

The girls worked really hard to put the conference together and their hard work paid off as it was an absolute smash. Many recent alums gladly gave up their weekend to make the trip to Norton, Mass. to share their engaging and often hilarious stories of "life after Wheaton."

Here's what more colleges have to wake up to-- alumni want to get involved, they want to come back, they want to mentor, they want to help students find internships -- in other words-- they want to stay connected to their alma maters.

I sat in on a panel of young alums who talked openly and candidly about their lives post-college -- from networking, to interviewing, to job hunting, to surviving in a new city-- their advice was absolutely spot on.

However, my great sadness is that most colleges make it very challenging for students to network with alums. In an economy as bad as this one, colleges should do everything in their power to make the "student/alumni connection" work.

Many colleges don't want students to bug alums about jobs. That is ridiculous. Alumni, particularly young alums, desperately want to be a source of insight and information at a time when their advice is most needed-- when you're a still a student in college!

Here are two ideas for today's college students:

1) Start a "FIVE AND UNDER" discussion on your college's website. "FIVE AND UNDER" should be a blog post for students to get advice from alums who have been out of college 5 years or less. Every college should collaborate with students to make this happen TODAY. Why? Because "connected" alums will feel needed and appreciated which will likely make them better donors to the college in the future.

2) Grab a copy of the latest alumni quarterly and draft a well thought out email to the "FIVE AND UNDER" class secretaries. Cordially ask these folks to spread the word to their fellow classmates that you would love to invite young alums to speak at conferences or mentor current students. This is an incredibly effective way to reach these alumni.

In today's lousy economy, alumni relations at most colleges will be very anxious about protecting their donor base -- aka philanthropic alums with money. Note to colleges - most young alums don't have any money but they do have a desire to give back and stay connected.

Bottom line-- the smartest colleges will actively encourage the strongest possible connection between young alums and students. Hands down, it's the ultimate win/win.